Deduno, whose victory was the only one for the Twins in the four-game series with the Mariners that ended Thursday, is 29 years old.

"I love his upside," Doumit said. "If he can harness his fastball, throw a few more strikes, he's got a chance to be pretty good. Guys have a tough time squaring up balls against him; it's tough to make solid contact. When you see some of the reaction of some of the hitters, I don't think there's any fluke about it."

The rangy, 6-foot-3, right-handed Deduno, who pitched briefly for the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres before signing as a free agent with the Twins in November, would like to pitch this winter in his native Dominican Republic to improve his control.

For the Twins this season, he has walked 37 in 58 innings.

"The ball moves a lot, but I'd like it to move more over the plate," Deduno said. "Sometimes I know where it moves; sometimes I don't.

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Deduno, who can become a free agent if the Twins don't retain him on the 40-player roster, said he would like to stay with the Twins.

General manager Terry Ryan said of Deduno, "He showed (Wednesday) what he's capable of. So now it's consistency."

Ryan is just as amazed as Doumit at the way Deduno's fastball moves sometimes.

"I'll tell you what, if you watch him and you don't have a radar gun, you don't know sometimes what the pitch is," he said. "Sometimes it goes this way, and you think, 'Well, that can't be.' And then you look at the velocity, and that had to be a fastball. And then you see this thing go like this, and it's 85 (mph), and, well, 'that can't be. That's not a fastball; it's a changeup.'

"That's one of the things about the guy. And the hitters, I think, are experiencing the same thing you guys are and me when we look at him -- what is that pitch? I don't know if it's finger pressure or wrist angle or what it is, but he's got a gift of natural movement on the fastball and the changeup. And then he's got a sharp breaking ball, which is probably his best pitch."

DON'T PRINT THAT

Tyus Jones, the Apple Valley High School point guard who is ranked the No. 2 junior prep basketball player in the country by ESPN, has scheduled recruiting visits to Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke in mid-October.

Michigan State, which Jones already has visited, remains in serious contention for the 6-foot-1, 171-pounder. The Gophers are also in the mix.

Meanwhile, Jones will visit Baylor this weekend. That connection is through his father, Rob Jones, who is related to a Baylor assistant, Jared Nuness, son of former Gophers standout Al Nuness.

The Vikings, choosing No. 4 overall in next April's NFL draft, will take North Carolina State cornerback David Amerson, draftheadquarters.com projects. The top pick will go to the Vikings' season-opening opponent, Jacksonville, which will take USC quarterback Matt Barkley.

That was ex-Gov. Jesse Ventura playing in the Harry Brown golf tournament at Hiawatha in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Ex-Twin Jason Kubel's 26 home runs for the Arizona Diamondbacks rank him fifth in the National League.

It wouldn't be surprising if the Twins bring Rochester manager Gene Glynn, who is from Waseca, back to Minnesota after his Triple-A season concludes. In Glynn's first season at Rochester this year, the team already has 17 more victories than it did last year and 21 more than the previous year.

The Twins' Joe Mauer, who ranks No. 2 in the major leagues in double-play grounders, has a hamburger -- the "Double Play Burger" -- named after him at Shamrock's pub in St. Paul.

The Vikings aren't on the schedule for NBC-TV's Sunday Night Football this year. The Packers are scheduled three times.

While the Twins are averaging 35,116 fans at home (88.9 percent of capacity), they are averaging 29,694 on the road.

Don't be surprised if the Timberwolves add Dave Benz from the San Francisco area to their broadcast team for the coming season.

Kevin Noreen, the 6-11, 250-pound 2010 Mr. Basketball Minnesota from Minnesota Transitions and a sophomore at West Virginia, has been elected team captain.

Cameron Rundles, a former DeLaSalle and Wofford College basketball star who played last season for the Leicester Riders in Great Britain, will become an assistant coach at Wofford this season.

OVERHEARD

Samuel Deduno, asked why his fastball moves so much: "I think God gave me the ability. But I would like to control it."